


Friday Night Wars

by Kuroyukihime



Category: SKAM (Italy)
Genre: Board Games, Coffee, Elia bonding with girls, Friendship, Gen, I tagged Elippo but there's not much of them, Light Angst, M/M, T for swearing, and it's really subtle, and with Filippo, contrabbandieri di luchini are there just for a second, keep in mind that this thing is just one big absurd, like - really light
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-01-24 11:56:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18570976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuroyukihime/pseuds/Kuroyukihime
Summary: Elia's not sure how he got himself into this situation, but here he is, spending his precious Friday evening at Sava's, ditched by his friends, surrounded by girls that probably hardly tolerate him, choosing a board game to play. But then again, everything is better than spending Friday evening alone.





	Friday Night Wars

**Author's Note:**

> Before we start, I have to apologize for a few things.  
> Firstly, I'm sorry for how badly written it is. I have no beta, so the only corrections I could apply were my own and I'm terrible at being beta for my own texts. ~~However, I'd love it if somebody was willing to go over this text for me and DM me (on Tumblr) about the mistakes so I can correct them. And if somebody would be willing to be beta for my eventual future stories (I have definitely too many Elia fic ideas) that would be even greater.~~ Huge thanks for, @isakcrisflorenzi for the time and work put into beta for this fic via Tumblr. Thank you so much, you're amazing!  
> And secondly, I apologize for making probably everybody extremely OOC. But it was kinda intentional, as it was supposed to be humorous, full of absurd kind of fic. And it would be wonderful if anyone at least smiles while reading it.

Elia was never up to any of Radio Osvaldo's shenanigans. In his opinion, Silvia was trying too much to make it into one, big 'oh, we all love each other so much, we're friends for life, and we love spending time together' thing. And that was definitely not his cup of tea. For one, he had no interested in the radio itself. He wasn't a member and definitely didn't aspire to be. He hadn't even heard as much as half of any of its programmes' episodes. Secondly, Silvia was trying to make these cozy meetings of hers as non-alcoholic as possible. Because radio's meetings were of two types - fairly normal parties (in which 'normal' stands for 'there was a lot of alcohol'), and cutesy get-togethers, were there was little-to-no alcohol, and they're boring as hell.

One of those boring get-togethers were board games meetings. And Elia made sure to attend none of them, no matter how much Martino and Niccolò were trying to persuade him. Unfortunately, there was this one time he couldn't escape it.

 

It all started on Tuesday with the girls coming up to Martino to ask him whether he and Niccolò will be up to radio's meeting on Friday.

"Of course, you all are welcome to come," stated Silvia, looking at Elia, Gio, and Luca. The first two shared an amused look. They held no interested in any of radio's socialization events. They attended maybe two of them, mostly because Martino came with reasons good enough for them to actually spend their time on them. And these were only normal-alcohol-amount events. Board games meeting? No way.

However, they didn't include an element called Luca. Luca, who saw these meetings as an occasion to get closer to Silvia, especially recently with guys trying to set him up with her and him being very enthusiastic about it. So, before Gio or Elia could speak up saying that no, they have very important plans for this evening, but thanks for asking, Luca answered.

"We'll be there!" He announced, making everyone quite surprised. "We happen to be free this Friday."

"No, we don't," Elia cut in, trying to save the situation. "Don't you remember? We have this party at Peccio's..."

"What? But Peccio has this family thing, he won't even be in Rome."

"He meant Galvani. You know, this party at Galvani's," Gio clarified, catching Elia's horrified look. Luca tends to be dense, but that was definitely a new level of density. And being desperate. No matter how much Luca liked Silvia, he never even considered attending any of radio's get-togethers.

"What? But I remember Elia mentioning Galvani can't organize parties at his place ever since he set his parent's bed on fire and..."

"We'll all be there," decided Martino. After he and Nico decided to take this radio thing seriously, they're almost always up to radio's meetings. Although instead of actually socializing with other people, they were mostly socializing with each other. And a little bit with girls. But mainly with each other.

Elia's head hit the table. He and Gio had about four days to come up with some kind of excuse to avoid this party.

 

Spoiler: they didn't.

 

It was early Friday evening, and Elia was standing at the Sava's doorstep. For a few reasons. Most of them were my-shitty-friends-betrayed-me kind of reasons. Martino and Niccolò generally didn't see anything against coming to board games with Radio Osvaldo's crew. Martino argued that they could pick their own game, smuggle some alcohol and drink it somewhere girls won't see and have some fun by themselves not minding the rest of people. Just like during their FIFA meetings, but with slightly less alcohol. Niccolò thought the same (mostly because he was more or less secretly a huge fan of board games, but it was hard to get boys to play any of them). Luca was truly delighted by the vision of spending the whole evening with Silvia while impressing her with his brilliant board gaming skills. Not that he had any.

And then Gio. Gio, who was Elia's last resort. The only person he could believe in, his ultimate bro, his savior. But starting from Thursday, the biggest traitor, Brutus to his Caesar, Ford to his James, Judas to his Jesus. He dared to tell him, that he actually decided to go there because Sofia's (Elia had nothing against her, but he truly hated her at that moment) friends were part of radio's crew, and she liked hanging out with them during these meetings. And since Gio was so whipped for her, he decided that yes, he suddenly wants to spend his precious Friday evening playing board games with Radio Osvaldo's crew. And although Elia wished him all the best in his love life, he slowly started to miss the single as a pringle Gio.

To make things worse, all of Elia's friends suddenly became the most boring people in the world, and nobody was up to anything. So it's not like Elia had anywhere to go. It was one of these days when although he had two homes, he didn't have a place in any of them. That was the case with being the only child of divorced parents who decided to start their lives over. There was no place for burdens from the previous ones.

So there he was, at Eleonora's doorstep, with only a couple of beers, wondering whether this evening is going to be just bad, really bad or extremely bad. But well, you only live once.

He was late for about half of an hour, so he expected to see at least a dozen people, maybe even already playing some games. He was a bit surprised seeing only five girls. Sad, demotivated, bored to death girls. That was the moment when he classified this evening as extremely bad and realized he's far too sober for that and has definitely not enough alcohol to survive.

"You came alone?" asked Eva, looking at him as if he was the last person she expected to see this evening. Elia shrugged, suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"Gio was supposed to come here with Sofia. And Luchino texted me he's on his way before I even left my house. We were supposed to meet here. Same with Marti and Nico, I was sure they're already here, helping with preparations or whatever." Elia was feeling more and more uneasy. Something was not right. Terribly not right. And Elia knew it'll end up badly. "And where is... everyone else?"

"Nobody came," sighed Silvia. "People declined either this morning, or this afternoon, or..."

"Seriously, most of them just bailed on us ten minutes ago, or fifteen minutes ago, or five minutes ago." Clarified Eva, seemingly irritated.

Elia shook his head. Of, fucking, course. He should predict it. Nobody in their right mind would spend their Friday evening like that. He didn't even know what he was doing there himself.

"Okay, I'll call the guys. They'll be here, definitely." Elia took out his phone. From being uncomfortable, he went to being annoyed. And by the end of the last phone call, he was almost furious.

Gio and Sophia definitely had better things to do. Elia only started asking where the fuck Gio is and why he isn’t at Sava’s, before he heard a giggle (definitely Sofia's) and the phone went silent. He tried to reach Gio two more times but in vain. Luca informed him he, in fact, was on his way and really, really, really wanted to attend radio's meeting, but something happened, and then he offered him the whole, long explanation which Elia listened to half-heartedly. Something about his brother being sick and his parents having to go out this evening which led to Luca being forced to look after him. Elia smelled some bullshit in this story, but there was no point in arguing. Only Martino seemed reasonable, as he explained him in a hushed voice that Nico wasn't feeling well and wasn't up to going out. And Martino just didn't want to leave him alone. He probably wouldn't be able to have fun without Nico, knowing how he's sitting alone, burdened with sadness and self-doubt. Since they finally sorted everything out and started dating, Martino never let Nico go through his weak moments alone. Everybody knew, admired, and respected it.

"They're not coming," declared Elia, pushing the phone back into the pocket. But he made no movement towards leaving the apartment. He just looked around, unsure of what to do next.

"So what are you still doing here?" Asked Sana, exchanging glances with the rest of girls. "Your boys are not coming, what's the point in you being here without them?"

Point taken, but Elia definitely wasn't going to admit it. He had no idea what was he going to do with five girls, whom he barely knew or not at all, and who (he was quite sure) had problems even with tolerating him. But then again, he was desperate here. He had a choice between trying to spend some time with them or being all alone the whole night. And he really, really didn't feel like being alone. He felt sick thinking about how he's going to wander around the Rome all alone, with nowhere to go. Truth be told, he could go to some bar or club, but he didn't like doing this alone. Besides, he didn't feel like going to any.

So he had to take the risk.

"Well, how could I possibly leave five, sad girls completely by their own on Friday night?" They all looked at him as if they know he was bulshitting them, but Elia decided to act as if he didn't notice it. "You put so much work into this... event. I can't just leave and make you feel as if it was all in vain because nobody came. One guest is still better than no guests, right? And don't worry, you don't need to thank me. But just in case you'd like to - you're welcome."

Girls exchanged looks among each other. Elia shifted uncomfortably, not sure what else he should say. He had no intention in having sappy heart-to-heart with anyone. He just wanted a place to stay this evening without having to explain anything. He knew himself that he was acting a little bit off, they didn't have to tell him. He only wished for them to overlook it this one time and act as if it was perfectly natural for him to spend Friday evening playing board games with them.

Few more moments passed and Elia already started to think about where he should head after they tell him to leave, but then Eleonora stands up.

"Okay, so maybe I'll get us something to drink while you all choose what should we play," she said, heading to the kitchen. And suddenly the atmosphere loosened up a little bit. "What can I get you?"

Girls instantly started to list off who wants what, definitely more used to this kind of situation. Elia could finally breathe again. They didn't question him. They let him stay. Eleonora gently asked him if he wants something to drink. He was fine with anything, and that's what he told her. Girls started to wonder which game should they begin with. At some point, even Elia joined the conversation because it stopped being a 'let's pick one' kind of discussion, and started to be more like 'I want to play this game, and you all just have to agree with me' one. It's not like Elia was a fan of arguing, but it seemed insanely funny to him to butt into this mess with yet another proposition.

It took a while, but they finally came to the agreement. The agreement reached by drawing lots, but still. It ended up being some kind of weird, six players _non t'arrabbiare_ brought by Fede. It's not that Elia cared that much about what they're going to play, but if you ask him, Monopoly was a whole lot better choice. Especially when he discovered  _non t'arrabbiare_  can be controversial from the very beginning. And that choosing the game was not the only problem they had to face.

"How does the fact I'm a guy apply to me not being able to choose the color of my piece?"

Right after choosing the game came picking the pieces, and Elia was informed that he's the last one to pick. So essentially - he had no choice at all. Which was scandalous, because he wanted a blue one but was left with orange and Sana was the one to get blue.

Again, it's not like Elia cared that much about the color of his piece. But he had to play this stupid game anyway, so he wanted to at least have a blue piece.

"Because you're supposed to be a gentleman here, so you're letting girls choose first," explained Sana.

"And what happened to equality?"

"Equality doesn't apply when it comes to having your piece in the color you like."

And that was the moment when Elia realized that was not just playing the game. That was serious business. He decided to stick to orange, after all. Orange or not, he was going to win this game. Or at least win with Sana. He seriously needed this payback for stealing blue from him. Moreover, Sana seemed to be the most promising one as an enemy. And Elia wasn't a fan of easy victories.

"Okay, um... This is quite a controversial game, so before we start, I want to state that no matter what will happen, I'll love you all the same."

"Thanks, Eva. I'll love you all the same too."

"Not you, Elia."

"Ouch... You just broke my heart, you know?"

And then they started. And boy oh boy, Elia will never again say board games are boring. Because what happened this evening was not just some boring board game playing. That was _the war_.

"You two are plotting against me, and it's not fair, you know?!"

"We're not!"

"You are! I've seen you whispering before Fede's turn!"

"If Fede's against anyone, that's me! She's been after my pieces for a long time. She already threw them out four times."

"It was three! It was definitely three!"

"It was four!"

"Ele, could you, please, fuck off of my pieces? You're tailing this one since it's out!"

"Not intentionally! It just happened to be like that! You're paranoid because Sana threw your piece out when it was almost at the home row!"

"Don't drag me into this discussion! Silvia's the one who's throwing mine out every time I'm close to the home row!"

"Because you're plotting with Fede!"

"We're not plotting! If anyone is plotting, that's definitely Ele and Eva."

"How could I plot with her?! She's tailing my pieces!"

"You're paranoid!"

Elia watched all this mess somehow awed. He always pictured girls as a little bit stiff. He knew they liked to party, a lot, and some of them (Eva) were very... enthusiastic when it came to drinking, but he didn't expect them being someone who could wage war over a board game with such intensity. He couldn't really believe it, but he genuinely had fun this evening. Although in the beginning, he was a bit scared to join any of those heated discussions. These chicks scared him to death. He actually saw Silvia screaming. And he didn't even know her body was able to produce this kind of sound. Plus, Eva could be unbelievably scary while mad. Not even mentioning Sana, who made him shiver with only one look.

However, Elia was also extremely prideful. So at some moment, fear had to step down in the name of honor. He had to fight accusations that at some point started to be directed towards him (as fighting only against each other was no longer enough for girls.) Although it has to be admitted that these two beers also played some part in his sudden need to protect his decency.

"Eva, this game is about all pieces going around on the same path. That's only natural all the pieces are going behind some other pieces, nobody is tailing you!" Stated Fede at some point, hearing the same accusation Eleonora already heard about a million times.

"Okay, maybe _you_ 're not tailing me. But you're definitely watching over to throw m-"

"I don't!"

"Shut up, you totally do! But anyway, Elia. Elia is tailing me for, like, forever! Since we started!"

"Me? Just a few minutes ago you were absolutely sure Eleonora is tailing you!" Said Elia finally. He was kinda ignoring previous accusations thrown at him, but enough is enough, and he had to fight back.

"Because you two are in cahoots with each other!"

"Wha... How did you even come up with that idea?"

"Easy! The tea. She gave you the tea in the best cup."

"Since when do I have the best cup?!"

"Well, you obviously do, as you gave it to your partner in crime!"

From there on, that was full war. Nobody was holding back. As previously girls' accusations of intentional hunting each other's pieces were quite unreasonable, at some point hunting became the main point of the game. Everybody seemed to forget that the main idea of the game is delivering pieces to the home row, they were looking for every and each occasion to get rid of somebody's piece. Doesn't matter whose. _Whichever_. Kill or be killed, as Federica said at some point, excusing herself during the argument with Sana.

The game was not even close to the end but definitely close to fisticuffs when Filippo came home. What he came upon was complete chaos. Cushions scattered around the room, a pile of papers with schemes and numbers sketched on them, and six high schoolers screaming at each other so loud that he actually heard them before he opened the front door.

He was completely, utterly shocked. He knew his sister's radio thing was sometimes organizing something like board games meetings. He even attended one, because it was at Martino's and Martino persuaded him to come. But this one was nothing like that. That was playing some kind of childish games, laughing and maybe sometimes bantering over some small stuff. He did saw some people getting too emotional over Uno, but that was it. Nothing too extreme. He almost fell asleep during the most boring Monopoly game in his life. But _this_ one. This was nothing like that meeting. Maybe that was because of the game they were playing, maybe because there were fewer people around and they could give it all being in their own, close group. No matter what it was, it made them _wild_.

Moreover, which probably surprised him the most, among the five female voices he knew very well, he could distinguish sixth, male, which he didn't recognize at all. Which surprised him, even more, was discovering that it belongs to Elia Santini, one of the last people he thought he would see in that kind of situation. Engaged in a fierce argument with... well, that was actually hard to deduct, as everybody was screaming at the same time.

"Move it back! Right now! I'm telling you to move this fucking piece of shit back, do you hear me?!"

"Fuck off! You're against me from the very beginning of this fucking game! I saw it!"

"That's against the fucking rules! How can you play not knowing the rules?!"

"No, shut up! Shut up! I'm not going to argue about it again! You're making no sense! Shut up!"

"I'm not! I'm not, and you know it! No! No, no, no! Now you imagine things! Stop it!"

"Don't! Don't you even dare to do this! I'm serious now, I'll shave your head if you do this!"

Filippo didn't even know where to start. But he had to do something, he couldn't let the bunch of furious highschoolers demolish the place he lived in. He took a deep breath hoping he'll make it out alive. You couldn't die this evening, he had a date with an incredibly handsome guy on Saturday, and he already bought lube and condoms.

 

"For my defense - they started. I was calm and collected, the true adult I am, and then they started to-"

"You traitor!" Eva didn't even let Elia finish the sentence, throwing a pillow at him. And he had to admit, she surprisingly had a lot of strength in her arms. "No blame shifting!"

"Okay, but anyway, you have to let us finish the game," said Federica, earning raised eyebrow and amused look from Filippo.

"Darling, you all nearly destroyed the entire Rome because of this game. And let me tell you, I have neither time nor willingness to save our capital more than once per evening," stated Filippo, and seeing how everybody is ready to argue, he continued. "We'll figure out the winner in a different way! But you'll have one! Seriously, you all are just too competitive..."

In the end, Filippo decided upon his own way of measuring the _non t'arrabbiare's_ successes. Firstly, by the number of pieces in a home row, then among players who had the most by the number of pieces already in play and then eventually by the number of fields the closest piece had to go through to reach the home row. And nearly everyone decided that's an extremely unfair method, because 'that's completely unpredictable game and everything could change, and this can't be a good method to define the winner.' Nearly everyone, because Sana herself was content with that course of events, as it made her the winner.

Despite all the protests Filippo decided that's the end and they have to accept the result or go play somewhere else because he's not mentally prepared to deal with neighbors who sooner or later would start coming and complaining about all the noise. That argument seemed to be rational enough for everyone, so the game ended leaving Sana as a winner and everybody else a bit displeased.

But the evening was still young, so Eva decided they can as well play some more games. Only this time something that won't end up as tragically...

"I'll go risky and let you choose the game," decided Elia, standing up. "Is anyone up for coffee?"

That was a fundamentally stupid question. Asking a bunch of people if they're up for coffee they don't even have to prepare themselves. Of course, everyone was going to say yes. Some individuals expressed their uncertainty about Elia making coffee and edibility of this coffee, but that was the risk worth of taking. Besides, Filippo was surprisingly eager to help Elia with this task. He explained that somebody had to help Elia maneuver around the kitchen and make sure he'll create something everyone will be able to drink, but that didn't stop Eva and Eleonora from exchanging doubtful looks.

In kitchen Elia made it a matter of honor to prove Filippo he was absolutely capable of making coffee. That he was an absolute master of making coffee. That his coffee was actually the best thing Flippo and girls could ever taste. After all, he had an experience even in making coffee in extreme circumstances.

"I've made coffee at the fireplace once," he confessed, earning a questioning look from Filippo. "We went to Bracciano. The boys and I. Gio has a lake house there. Or more like, his aunt does but he calls it his. It was fucking December, and the gas technician was supposed to come only the next day. But we wanted coffee, so we decided to make a fire in the fireplace and make coffee like that."

"And was it any good?" Asked Filippo not even trying to hide his amusement. Elia shrugged a bit, going through the cabinets looking for some cups. Theoretically, Filippo should help him with that. After all, that's why he was in the kitchen in the first place. But it was much funnier to just watch how Elia is struggling with finding anything, so he just hopped on a counter saying not a word about cups or coffee or anything else.

"It was great! Seriously. The boys loved it." Filippo gave him a doubtful look, so he continued. "They did! I mean, it really was surprisingly good as for coffee made under such circumstances."

Filippo just nodded. For a while, they sat in silence disturbed only by the sound of Elia rummaging through the shelves and cabinets, and then Filippo spoke again, a bit unsure this time.

"So... you're here for Silvia?"

Elia stopped abruptly. He wasn't facing Filippo, but the older boy could easily observe him getting annoyed. He momentarily regretted asking the question. He didn't know Elia's side of the story, as Martino and Niccolò never actually talked about it (at least not around Filippo, probably because he never asked), and he never bothered to wonder about how could he feel about this situation. He only knew Silvia wasn't interested, but it was because he could see it himself. He was talking to Eleonora's friends from time to time, but he wasn't talking to Martino's friends at all. The only time he spoke to Gio, Luca, and Elia was during the Christmas party a few months ago, and after that, he only heard about them occasionally from girls or Martinico. He didn't care about them most of the time more than 'my friend friends' or 'my sister friends' friends.'

Except that at that moment, he did care more than that. He knew next to nothing about Elia, but for some mysterious reasons he was the only person who attended his sister's radio event, and he was trying to make coffee in his kitchen telling some stories from Bracciano, and that was enough for Filippo to think 'hey, this guy seems to be cool.' He didn't want Elia to think about him something like 'this Filippo guy is just too nosy and not cool at all.' He wanted to be on cool terms with people who were not only his sister's but also Martino's friends at the same time.

"Sorry, I didn't want to-"

"No, it's just..." Elia still looked annoyed when he finally looked at Filippo. "Does everybody know about this stupid matchmaking plan? Everybody is involved? If so, then sorry, but I've already seen all Silvia's Instagram photos and have heard enough about how pretty she is. And no, I'm still not interested, okay?"

They looked at each other for another few quiet moments. Elia seemingly upset, Filippo a bit took aback. Few more seconds passed before they broke eye contact, both feeling uneasy and maybe even a bit ashamed.

"Sorry, I went overboard..."

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't ask."

"No, it's..." Elia stopped, then sighed and went back to looking through the cabinets, but less enthusiastic than before. He didn't even remember what was he looking for. "I'm sick of it. It took some time to explain to Marti and Nico that I'm not interested in Silvia. Besides... Look, maybe you don't know it yet, but Luca has this huge crush on Silvia, and some time ago he had one on Sofia." Elia did too, but he didn't feel like mentioning it to the guy he barely knew. Plus, he felt as if it would sound lame. "So imagine losing Sofia to Gio first, and then losing Silvia to me. Let me just tell you, I'm not going to go through his 'guys, maybe I should try being bisexual, maybe I'll have more luck with guys' shit ever again."

"Oh, I've actually had some of that too."

Elia stopped searching again, looking at Filippo with raised brows. He wasn't sure if he understood it correctly. Did Filippo mean talking to Luca? If so, that was the first time Elia heard about it. And he believed Luca would tell them if he ever bumped into some of Martino's friend that wasn't one of their shared friends, especially since Filippo was one of these people Martino was mentioning fairly often.

He decided to make sure.

"Luca was talking to you about his big orientation changing plans?"

"Yeah, kinda," admitted Filippo, smiling widely at Elia's astonishment. "I was talking to him during the Christmas party at Martino's. He was a bit drunk, so I offered to take him outside, so he could take a breath and sober up a little bit. He was trying to tell me some story, but I was not sure what about. Something about... lottery in Argentina? I don't know, honestly. But whatever it was, it made him think that Giovanni is, I'm quoting here, 'a fucking asshole.' He looked so sad, and I didn't want to make him feel even worse, so I told him that's a great story and he shouldn't be sad because he's a great guy and everything. Then he told me something like 'dude, you're so fucking nice, I'd totally bang you if I were gay'... Oh, and he told me not to go after Martino because he already has enough cool guys going after him."

By the end of the story, Elia was already laughing so much he had to hold to the counter, and Filippo felt proud of himself for shifting his mood so much. It was like fixing the mistake he made a few minutes ago. Besides, seeing Elia laugh so much made him laugh himself. He didn't know why, but there was something in this boy's laugh and a smile that was highly contagious. Plus, he had to admit he preferred Elia's happy face far more than his annoyed face. What he wouldn't admit even to himself was that he has a soft spot for Elia's lips and his smile brought up these lips in the way that made Filippo glad he was sitting, as his knees went a bit soft.

"He never told us about this," admitted Elia, shaking his head a bit.

"Well, that doesn't surprise me. He was seriously drunk... and probably uncomfortable after he understood what he was doing."

"But still, I'm so going to remind him about it. Maybe we should-"

"Hey, what about that coffee? I can hear too much laughing, not enough doing!" Eva's shout made them flinch. Filippo actually forgot they were supposed to make coffee. And Elia looked as if he just remembered.

"Filippo, if you're flirting with Elia, please stop!" Eleonora added, and this remark actually made Filippo a bit embarrassed. Which was not usual for him, he didn't tend to be embarrassed.

"I'm not!" He shouted back. Girls laughed, and Filippo noticed Elia being more amused than embarrassed. That made Filippo a bit more relaxed. The last thing he wanted was girls making Elia uncomfortable around him after they finally started to adjust to each other. Or at least Filippo felt as if they were.

"So... are you going to help me or does my suffering amuse you?" Asked Elia, wide smile on his face. This damn, addictive smile that made Filippo smile back every single time.

 

"You're sure you're not mad, bro? Because I seriously felt bad for standing you up." Gio looked guilty, ever since he saw Elia this morning. And Elia knew it. He got tons of messages from boys over Saturday. He already told them he's not mad or anything, that board games meeting was not that bad (actually, it was pretty awesome, but he decided to stay with 'not bad,' because it sounded less lame) and they can just relax and forget it. And they seemed to really forget it. Except for Gio, who even called him on Saturday evening to make sure whether Elia was really fine or not. He explained that he simply felt bad after realizing that was probably one of these days Elia had nowhere to go.

Because Gio knew. Of course he knew. There was this exceptional bond between them. To the point where they could communicate without using words. All it took was a simple exchange of looks, and they knew everything. A few gestures were enough to express a wide range of words and emotions. Every time they were unsure while talking in a group they were searching for each others' eyes to settle thoughts and feels.

That's why all it took was Elia mentioning once that he 'doesn't feel like coming back home recently' and Giovanni's eyes were on his. The very same evening Gio called him to ask what's wrong. In the exact same way Elia was calling him after the break up with Eva to check up on him. Not that Elia was talking about his family problems to everyone. For one, he didn't feel like that's the big thing. He would feel stupid complaining about how his parents were ignoring him, he wasn't a damn child to whine because of the lack of attention. Moreover, he would feel stupid complaining about it in front of Martino. He felt his problems with parents were not as serious as these of Martino, so talking about it would be disrespectful.

"Anyway, you were not so guilty when you stood me up back in October," said Martino, looking between Gio and Luca. Luca shrugged, laughing a bit. Gio rolled his eyes.

"Oh, please. That was your fault, you had to deal with consequences, bro," he said.

"You asshole! You promised me you'll come, that's all that matter!"

"Is that really so important?" Niccolò spoke up, his arm around Martino's waist. "Look, because they stood you up we could get to know each other back then. So all's well that ends well."

Martino laughed and leaned down a bit to kiss Nicco's cheek. Elia rolled his eyes.

"And here goes my daily sugar dose, thank you very much. Now I have to remember not to put any in my coffee."

Niccolò laughed when Martino put his middle finger up for Elia. Then Gio started talking about how Elia should finally found someone for himself because 'lack of laid makes you too much of a whiney asshole, man' to which Elia not really politely disagreed. They bickered a bit like that before Luca spoke up.

"Marti, that's probably to you," he said, jerking his head towards the school gate. The rest of the boys looked in that direction to see Eva and Eleonora walking towards them. It had to be to Martino, because when the girls were talking to them, that was, for most of the times, because Eva had some business to Martino. Unless Silvia was with them, then it was about radio.

But this time, unexpectedly, after saying collective "hello," Eva looked directly at one person.

"So, Elia, any plans for Friday?"

The four boys looked at Elia with utter shock. He actually knew how they were feeling. He was completely shocked himself. He glanced at Gio, trying to tell him with his eyes alone that he was not sure what's going on himself. Eva asking him about his Friday plans? Him only? That was beyond human understanding.

"Uh... Not really?" He answered finally. Eva nodded, smiling widely. Elia already started to think about how to turn her down gently, but then she spoke again.

"That's perfect. We're thinking about Monopoly this time, what do you think? Ele has this Italian version, and it has six pieces, so it's ideal."

"And Sana wanted us to tell you, I'm quoting," started Eleonora, looking at her phone" 'tell Santini that I'm going to defeat him again and that he has to play as a soccer ball because the rest of pieces is already taken.'"

The guys looked even more confused than before, but Elia actually laughed, shaking his head lightly. The whole situation was absurd. The girls asking him to spend yet another Friday evening playing board games. He should refuse them, that was only logical. He should refuse them by saying that he has much better things to do on Friday. He should make fun of them for even making this kind of proposition. Or maybe just exchange amused looks with boys and make it into some sort of inside joke later. Perhaps he should actually do all of that.

But he did none.

"Okay, I'll be there. But on two conditions," started Elia, holding up two fingers. "First, all cushions have to be put away from Eva."

"Hey!"

"Please, Eva, you're so fucking brutal, I think you actually bruised me with these cushions!"

Eva made a face. Elia wasn't sure what exactly it was supposed to be, so he decided to believe it's her way of saying 'yeah, actually, you may be right.'

"And secondly, Filippo has to be there."

After that words not only the boys, but the girls too looked at him quite confused. Eva and Eleonora exchanged a look that was probably supposed to be subtle but wasn't. And Elia didn't even have to look behind to know that his friends are incredibly puzzled. But he focused solely on keeping a straight face. Eventually, Eleonora broke the silence.

"That shouldn't be the problem, I don't think he has any plans for Friday. But why?"

Elia's smile grew a bit as she shrugged.

"I really like the coffee he's making," he answered simply. It was, in fact, truth. Not the whole, but some of it, and it was enough. "And tell Allagui to buy some tissues, because she's going to cry when _I_ 'll be destroying _her_ on Friday."

 

**Author's Note:**

> I have this headcanon Elia's parents are divorced, live apart and both decided to start over with their lives, and that made them push Elia aside, as he didn't match any of these new lives. And I like to believe that's why he escaped into weed, and alcohol, and parties, and is afraid of getting into a serious relationship (as Gio himself mentioned during season 2, he can bitch about not having a girl around but when a girl is actually interested in him he's not interested in her anymore, or as Marti and Nico mentioned that he's not up to having anything serious with anyone, moreover we actually don't know anything about Elia's love life aside from this short moment with 'Peccio with mèches' girl, the obsession with Argentina he shared with Gio and Luca, and his unwillingness to date Silvia.)  
> I'm actually thinking about turning this headcanon into some kind of Elia centered Elippo fic, but we'll see.
> 
> And guys, Gio calling Elia to talk about his problems with Eva is canon and I love it: https://solo-silenzio.tumblr.com/post/179021391907/video-e-here-you-go-l-theyre-so-good-the  
> That's why I believe that's the thing they do. Calling each other to talk about their problems. Seriously, these two have such an amazing relation. That's the shame we don't see them interacting this way in season 3.
> 
> If you feel like talking to me or suggest something, feel free to message me on Tumblr, @winry7


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